REMOVAL OF ENDOCRINE DISRUPTERS BY A CARBON ELECTROLYTIC REACTOR

Abstract

       Water demand for agricultural production has become a crucial factor for sustainable development. With regard to reducing the risk posed by water supplied from irrigation or natural water sources, water reuse and recycling have been initiated in many parts of the world, especially where water scarcity is becoming serious due to the impact of climate change. One of the challenges in water reuse is how to eliminate toxic compounds from agricultural wastewater. This paper demonstrates a method to remove estradiol (E2), an environmental hormone excreted mainly from animal husbandry farms and 2,4 dichlorophenol (DCP), a weed control chemical. The operating conditions for electro-chemical oxidation of estrogens (estrone (E1), E2 and ethynylestradiol (EE2) and 2,4 dichlorophenol (2,4D) were evaluated using synthetic wastewater. The results showed that although estrogens and DCP oxidized in the range of 0.5-0.8V, the optimal condition for electropolimerization was achieved in alkaline conditions. In addition, the continuous treatments show that more than 80% of removal efficiency was achieved with energy consumption around 1-10 Wh/m³. It is recommended that further studies using available materials at local sites should be conducted to make this process possible in practice.